Associated PressMassachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, left, takes questions from reporters as Mass. Lt. Gov. Timothy Murray, right, looks on during a news conference at the Statehouse, in Boston, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012. Patrick sent lawmakers a proposed $32.3 billion state budget for the next fiscal year on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

BOSTON – Gov. Deval L. Patrick submitted a $32.3 billion budget for the next fiscal year that increases the budget for the University of Massachusetts, level funds local aid for cities and towns, and calls for hiring additional public defenders to replace private lawyers for the poor.

The budget is up 3 percent from estimated spending for this fiscal year.

The budget is balanced with $400 million from the rainy day fund and $141 million in other one-time revenues, $260 million in new revenues and cost reductions. The cost reductions are achieved with cuts in programs and proposed reforms such as combining the state Probation Department with Parole under the executive branch and changes to control spending on health care.

Patrick took the wraps off his budget two days after his annual "State of the State" speech.

“As I've said before, I am asking the Legislature to make tough choices," Patrick said at a Statehouse news conference. "This budget is no different."

The budget now goes to the state House of Representatives, which will approve its own version. The state Senate will also approve a budget. A House-Senate compromise would be sent to the governor, who would sign the budget and could veto line items or offer amendments.

The governor's budget eliminates about 300 positions in the executive branch. Statewide grants to local tourist councils, including one to the Greater Springfield Convention & Visitors Bureau, would be cut by 66 percent to $2 million.

The budget also cuts $1.5 million, or 24 percent, from a $6.3 million program to provide free or subsidized meals to elderly people at local councils on aging, eliminating 240,000 lunches, the administration said.

Photo by the governor's officeJay Gonzalez, secretary for administration and finance

The budget also seeks to end certain support services for about 1,750 families with developmentally disabled members, saving $5.5 million. The program is funded at $41 million for the new fiscal year.

The budget also calls for an increase of 50 cents in the state's $2.51 per pack tax on cigarettes to take effect on Aug. 1, raising $62.5 million to help pay for court-mandated state subsidized health insurance for legal immigrants who are eligible. Patrick also resurrected a past idea to impose the state's 6.25 percent sales tax on candy and soda, generating $61.5 million for public health services.

The five-campus University of Massachusetts budget is $455 million, up 6 percent, with the Amherst campus receiving about half that amount. The university system's budget includes $25.5 million to pay for bargained increases in contracts with union employees.

"These funds provide a major step in achieving our goal of 50 percent of our education budget coming from the state and keeping student charges as low as possible," University of Massachusetts President Robert L. Caret said in a statement. "We thank the governor for this important step in achieving that goal."

The state currently subsidizes about 45 percent of the university system's education budget.

Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Murray said the budget includes a substantial increase for services for military veterans.

The state Department of Veterans Services would receive $78.5 million, an increase of 14 percent, including more money to provide 100 percent reimbursement to communities for shelter services for homeless veterans, up from 75 percent, and additional funds for services such as job training and annuities for disabled veterans and parents of military members killed in combat.

The budget for the Holyoke Soldiers Home would increase to $20.8 million, up about 1 percent from estimated spending for this year.

Local aid fared well in the budget. General education aid rose by $145 million to $4.136 billion, the most state money ever for the program, Patrick said. "We owe it to ourselves to do everything we can to support the schools," Patrick said.

Unrestricted aid was left at $833 million with a provision to add another $65 million if there are sufficient surplus funds at the end of this fiscal year.

So-called Chapter 90 funds for local road repairs stayed the same at $200 million, as did $213 million for extraordinary costs of special education. Other aid that was level funded included $43.5 million for regional school transportation and $26.3 million for reimbursing communities for state-owned lands on which they cannot collect property taxes.

Jay Gonzalez, secretary for administration and finance, said the budget builds on an existing initiative by adding another 241 full-time public defenders to replace some work done by state-contracted private lawyers for the poor. If the Legislature agrees and public defenders are hired, indigent defense would be split 50-50 between public defenders and the private lawyers.

Public defenders currently handle about 25 percent of the cases involving people who can't afford to hire their own lawyer. The cost of defense for the indigent would be reduced by about $20 million if the additional staff public defenders are hired, according to the budget.

Patrick is also bringing back a plan to merge probation and parole, saying in the budget that it would create one coherent organization and would reduce rates of people relapsing into crime. State legislators have rejected the proposed merger the past two years.

Gonzalez said the administration is "relentlessly focused" on doing everything it can to change the way state government does business.

The administration was so driven to reduce spending that it saved $6,500 in printing costs by producing a budget document that is much thinner than in the past and putting other budget information online.

According to the budget, tax collections during the new fiscal year will grow by 4.7 percent, or $986 million, over this fiscal year. The extra tax money will quickly be gobbled up by increases in major programs, officials said.

Costs for MassHealth, the state's Medicaid program, are expected to grow by $518 million to $11.1 billion. Servicing state debt will increase by $178 million to $2.435 billion and pensions will jump by $74 million to $1.5 billion.

The increase in health care, safety net services and legal obligations such as debt and pensions means that many other state services will receive no increases or even reductions.

Teenage pregnancy prevention, for example, was cut to $2.284 million, down 4 percent, or $94,000, resulting in service losses for 1,000 people, the administration said. A medium-security state prison in the southeastern part of the state would be closed, saving $8.9 million.

"Some worthwhile programs will not be funded," Patrick said in his budget message. "Some have seen major reductions. But in the long run, these choices allow us to be responsible to the next generation."